Faster, cheaper, safer; - Nav Canada

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Meanwhile, in mid-ocean where ADS-B is not available, most planes use a surveillance aid called ADS-C, which automatically transmits the plane's position every 18 minutes, in addition to voice and datalink communications. When Mouland began as a controller 33 years ago, the backbone of the system was paper flight data strips containing crucial flight details. "You had all of these strips and as a new strip came out of the printer, you may get four or five at a time, (you) would put them physically in the flight data board to try and get them to fit, it was a very manual process."
Over the same period, an initial GAATS system was evolving that gave controllers some automated tools to monitor and direct aircraft. As recently as 2006, Britain's NATS adapted GAATS for its oceanic needs and is now looking at GAATS+. But the older system still required many manual inputs via keyboards and HF voice communications, which could be time-consuming and open to potential keystroke and "readback" errors. "What the system allows (now) is to very quickly look at what profiles are available to this aircraft (and) tell right away, I can give this guy exactly what he wants, I can give him 1,000 feet higher with a slight speed adjustment and I can do it very, very quickly," says Mouland. Key GAATS+ features include: ??Colour-coded electronic flight strips on a touch screen replace conventional paper strips and any flight changes are automatically updated, meaning less typing for controllers. If something in the flight profile does not conform to the controller's clearances or the original flight plan, the "strip" is highlighted in bright yellow, signalling a "conflict," and an icon representing the plane on the controller's main situational display also turns yellow. The paperless strips were first introduced into <strong>Nav</strong> <strong>Canada</strong>'s domestic air traffic control towers and the system has been sold and licensed internationally to a handful of other air navigation services. To resolve a conflict or determine whether, for example, a pilot's request to climb to a higher altitude or change speed will put him in conflict with nearby craft, controllers activate the "BORG" function. The Bilateral Option Resolution Grid is a simple graphical display offering up to 25 combinations of speeds and altitudes available to a particular flight. Options that would put the flight in conflict or some other nonconformance are highlighted in yellow. Allowable options are displayed in green. The controller simply touches the preferred green option and the instructions to the flight crew can be issued automatically by a datalink text message or, if the controller prefers, by issuing an HF radio clearance. Before BORG, the controller would have to manually calculate all the possibilities while handling all the other traffic in his sector. If a pilot's request to change a flight profile can't be immediately fulfilled, GAATS+ stores the request and continually monitors traffic. When the requested clearance becomes available, it alerts the controller, who has final say before issuing a clearance. Another time-saver is a "click-and-drag" function that allows controllers to move onscreen icons representing real flights to different tracks and instantly see whether there's a conflict anywhere along the potential new route. The system also is capable of sending electronic oceanic clearances to aircraft, with electronic readbacks.
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Faster, cheaper, safer; - Nav Canada

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